Finca El Cambalache
El Cambalache is a very small coffee farm in Nueva Segovia, Nicaragua, worked by Abner Samuel Zavala and, by ACE’s own record, by two generations of the Zavala family. It is the more decorated of the family’s two properties, placing at the Nicaragua Cup of Excellence in 2018 (4th, 90.23), 2021 (2nd, 90.75) and 2026 (1st in the washed category, 91.44) — the first two with Maracaturra, the third with a variety the sources disagree about.
The farm is tiny. ACE’s directory entry describes it as “4 manzanas” — the standard Central American land unit of about 0.7 hectares, so roughly 2.8 hectares, seven acres. Most farms in this wiki are fifty to several hundred hectares. This one has produced three top-five national placings in eight years.
Story
What the farm is
The only description of El Cambalache that exists in a primary record is the producer’s own, filed with the Alliance for Coffee Excellence alongside his 2018 winning lot. In it he says the farm is small, that it “was inherited three years ago”, that “my father bought it ten years ago”, and that two family generations are involved (ACE farm directory — 90.23, accessed 2026-07-23, confirmed via WebFetch).
That is the whole official profile. ACE publishes no altitude for it and no map reference beyond “Nueva Segovia”. The family’s other farm, La Esperanza, is recorded at 1,300 m in Dipilto, and the 2026 gazette report places Zavala’s win in the Dipilto–Mozonte cluster of Nueva Segovia, but nothing states El Cambalache’s own elevation.
What they actually do to the coffee
This is where the farm earns its results, and unusually, the technique is on the record rather than inferred. For the 2018 lot, Zavala lists four things (ACE farm directory — 90.23, confirmed via WebFetch):
- Excellent agronomic management — the routine care of the trees
- Selective picking of deep-red cherry only — pickers take just the fully ripe fruit and come back for the rest, several times a season, instead of stripping a branch in one pass
- Anaerobic fermentation of up to 60 hours — the coffee ferments in a sealed vessel with the oxygen kept out, which changes which microbes do the work and pushes the cup toward fruit and wine notes
- Drying on African beds — raised mesh tables that let air circulate underneath, drying the coffee evenly instead of baking one side against a patio
Compare that with the family’s 2006 entry for La Esperanza, which lists its processing as simply “washed, sun dried”. Same family, same mountains, twelve years apart. The entire difference between 30 a pound is in that four-item list.
ACE’s jury described the 2018 cup as “fleshy, lemonade, white wine, honey, red apple, cherry” with structured acidity and an elegant, clean profile (same source). White wine and cherry in a washed coffee is the signature of long anaerobic fermentation — a washed lot processed the ordinary way tends to be cleaner and plainer than that.
2021 — second in the country, split between Australia and Japan
The 2021 result is the best-documented. El Cambalache placed second overall at 90.75 with a honey-processed Maracaturra — honey meaning the skin comes off but the sticky mucilage stays on the bean while it dries. The producer is recorded as “Abner Samuel Zavala / Indira Paola Zavala”. The coffee was split into two auction lots of 231.48 lb (105 kg) each:
| Lot | Price | Total | Buyer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2a | $30.20/lb | $6,990.70 | Dimattina Coffee (Australia) |
| 2b | $30.30/lb | $7,013.84 | Kyokuto Fadie Corporation (Japan) |
The whole 2021 Nicaragua auction sold 18,378.09 lb at an average of 289,658.61 across 23 lots; El Cambalache’s $30-plus was roughly double the average (ACE — Nicaragua 2021, accessed 2026-07-23, confirmed via WebFetch). First place, at 90.96, went to Jesus Mountain Coffee Company, also in Nueva Segovia — a margin of 0.21 points.
2026 — first place in the washed category
At the XXII Taza de la Excelencia Nicaragua 2026, El Cambalache took first place among the washed coffees, at 91.44 — the farm’s highest score. The awards were given at Casa de los Flecheros in Matagalpa on 14 May 2026, with the international auction set for 29 June 2026; more than 190 coffees were judged (La Gaceta, Nicaragua’s official gazette, accessed 2026-07-23, confirmed via WebFetch). The score, and the lot weights of 198.42 lb and 188.98 lb, are from ACE’s own Nicaragua 2026 table (accessed 2026-07-23, confirmed via WebFetch).
The two sources disagree about the variety. The gazette says Maracaturra; ACE’s table says Geisha. That matters, because an earlier version of this section read the choice of Maracaturra as a deliberate vote of confidence in this particular block of land — an interpretation that collapses if ACE is right and the farm simply followed the family’s 2025 Geisha win. The variety is unresolved; see the callout below.
Notable lots / records
| Year | Lot | Score | Price | Auction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Washed Maracaturra, 498.03 lb | 90.23 | not published in the entry consulted | Cup of Excellence Nicaragua — 4th |
| 2021 | Honey Maracaturra, 2 × 231.48 lb | 90.75 | 30.30/lb ($14,004.54 total) | Cup of Excellence Nicaragua — 2nd; bought by Dimattina Coffee and Kyokuto Fadie Corporation |
| 2026 | Washed — variety disputed, 198.42 + 188.98 lb | 91.44 | no price published | Taza de la Excelencia Nicaragua XXII — 1st, washed |
The 2018 and 2021 rows are from the Alliance for Coffee Excellence’s own records. The 2026 row combines ACE’s results table (score, lot weights) with Nicaragua’s official government gazette (the placement and the ceremony); neither publishes a price, and they disagree on the variety — see the callouts below.
To verify
Which variety won in 2026. ACE’s Nicaragua 2026 table records lots 1A and 1B as Geisha, Washed, Dipilto, 91.44, producer Abner Samuel Zavala, farm El Cambalache. La Gaceta reports the same win as Maracaturra. ACE runs the competition and publishes the entry data, which makes its table the stronger record, but a national gazette is not a casual source either and nothing here resolves it. Do not state the 2026 variety as fact.
No 2026 price exists yet. ACE’s 2026 table has no price or buyer columns at all, and the dates printed on that page (“Auction June 25, 2025”) appear to be stale template text that contradicts the gazette’s 29 June 2026. Quote neither.
To verify
The farm’s size and altitude. ACE’s entry gives “4 manzanas” (~2.8 ha), but the English rendering of that entry is machine-translated from Spanish and appears elsewhere as “4 apples” (manzana is also the Spanish for apple) and as “four hectares”. These are different numbers from one underlying phrase. No altitude is published for El Cambalache anywhere consulted here — do not borrow La Esperanza’s 1,300 m for it.
Its exact municipality. ACE lists the city simply as “Nueva Segovia”, which is the department, not a town. Video coverage places the farm in the Dipilto zone, but that rests on YouTube material not verified here. The family’s other farm is documented in Dipilto.
To verify
The 2026 result has no score, price or buyer yet. La Gaceta reports the placement and the variety only. The auction was scheduled for 29 June 2026, before this note’s access date, so ACE’s Nicaragua 2026 page should now carry the numbers; it was not fetched here. A YouTube summary of the ceremony additionally claims Zavala posted the highest score in the entire competition — the gazette contradicts that, giving a 92.00 to the natural-category winner (Los Alpes, Inversiones Valladares Acevedo S.A., Dipilto). Do not repeat the highest-score claim.
To verify
The inheritance chronology doesn’t quite close. ACE’s 2018 entry says the farm “was inherited three years ago” (≈2015) and that “my father bought it ten years ago” (≈2008). The roaster Dimattina, writing in December 2019, says Zavala took over both farms “last year” (2018) (Dimattina Coffee, accessed 2026-07-23). Both are loose phrasings and they do not agree. Don’t state a handover year.
To verify
Whether El Cambalache and La Esperanza are neighbouring plots or separate properties is not settled by any source. They are consistently treated as two distinct farms, entered separately in the same 2021 auction with different scores and prices, but no source describes where one sits relative to the other.
Related
- Abner Samuel Zavala — the producer, and the family’s full price arc from 66 a pound
- Finca La Esperanza (Dipilto) — the family’s other farm, and the 2025 winner
- Maracaturra — the variety behind every result on this page
- Anaerobic fermentation · Honey process — the two techniques the farm’s scores are built on
- Cup of Excellence · Alliance for Coffee Excellence — the competition and the body publishing the records
- Cup of Excellence records by country — where Nicaragua’s prices sit against everyone else’s
- Finca Solidaridad · Ramón Jarquín — the other small Nicaraguan Maracaturra farm on this wiki
- Coffee scoring · Cupping — what 90.75 means
Official links
- (no official website found — El Cambalache is a farm of roughly three hectares with no site or exporter page of its own; it reaches buyers through the Cup of Excellence auction)
- Official record — ACE farm directory entry, El Cambalache 2018 (90.23) — the only primary description of the farm that exists
- Official results — Alliance for Coffee Excellence, Nicaragua 2021 — the primary record of the second place and the auction prices
Sources
- Alliance for Coffee Excellence — farm directory entry 90.23, El Cambalache, Nicaragua 2018 — accessed 2026-07-23 (confirmed via WebFetch)
- Alliance for Coffee Excellence — Nicaragua 2021 results and auction — accessed 2026-07-23 (confirmed via WebFetch)
- Alliance for Coffee Excellence — farm directory entry 84.98, La Esperanza, Nicaragua 2006 — accessed 2026-07-23 (confirmed via WebFetch; the family’s other farm, cited for contrast)
- La Gaceta (Nicaragua) — Cafés de Nueva Segovia destacan en la XXII edición de la Taza de la Excelencia Nicaragua 2026 — accessed 2026-07-23 (confirmed via WebFetch)
- Dimattina Coffee — Nicaragua Finca La Esperanza, Samuel Zavala — accessed 2026-07-23 (confirmed via WebFetch; a roaster that bought the 2021 lot)
- Alliance for Coffee Excellence — Nicaragua 2025 results and auction — accessed 2026-07-23 (confirmed via WebFetch; cited for the family’s other farm)
- Alliance for Coffee Excellence — Nicaragua 2026 results — accessed 2026-07-23 (confirmed via WebFetch; scores and weights only, no prices or buyers)